So for my high school / middle school musical application (4 shows a year), the general consensus is that I should look at getting b3's instead of e6's? I ask because I was all set to get e6's up until reading this thread. Also, Mike, are you saying that e2's are cheaper that e6's? Because I'm not seeing that.
It's hardly a consensus. Every application is different, and within each
microphone model, Countryman offers multiple variations thereof, further muddying the waters. There are also some users who would prefer to teach costumers how to
wire mic's into performers' hair, and others who want no one to touch their microphones but the audio person as they put it on the performer. Some need the flexibility of using a B3 as a hair mic one day, and a
lapel mic the next. Others only ever want earset mic's.
Let me further elaborate on the pricing and cost-effectiveness over time:
B3's are much cheaper than than E6's and E2's. Effectively, you can get two for every one E6. They lack a detachable cable though, so when the cable breaks you need to
whip out a microscope and precision soldering
iron or you need to
send it to Countryman for repair.
E2's are at roughly the same price
point as E6's. The smaller
boom makes for less fidgeting with how the
boom and sits on a person's ear, and may increase the lifespan of a
microphone if it indeed makes for less metal fatigue on the
boom. The
microphone is further from the mouth though, so for untrained singers it could make for a rougher experience -- though the E2's directional mic versus an E6 omni -- Countryman says should give a similar response.
The biggest issue I see out there with E6's over E3's is that users feel compelled to use
clear medical tape to hold the
microphone's to a performer's
face, as sometimes the
boom can feel like it is floating out in space. When people do this, the rotation of the performers' head puts additional stress on that rear connection just below the back of the ear, where I've seen the greatest number of irreparable failures.
Almost every audience will not only forgive the visual appearance of a
microphone, but most will not even notice or think about it. Audiences these days expect wireless microphones to be in use, and if they are somewhat visible, it is not an interruption to the artistic experience of theater.
In some ways it's a
wash no matter what you do. B3's will cost you more in repairs, but you can buy more of them with a given budget, and repairs are cheaper than replacements. E2's and E6's you can't buy as many of with a given budget, but you can get replacement cables for them -- although if/when the
microphone boom eventually fails, it's a costly replacement. Especially if you get a series of failures hitting you all at once -- not because of misuse but because they've been through the gauntlet for five years.
Most important is that somewhere there exists a rainy day budget for replacements, and that a sufficient amount of spare microphones and/or cables are included in a
purchase. You don't want to be in a position where you're in immediate need of getting 3 mic's replaced and don't have the budget for it.
Alternatively, you can buy enough mic's to get you through most of the smaller events (4-8 mic's), and rent for the 24-mic productions. It's not cheap per-production and schools often get one-time
purchase approvals instead of evenly distributed budgets, but it saves you the gross expense of having to maintain your own wireless systems. The FCC is looking to hack apart the wireless spectrum a second time with a 600MHz auction, and I know one
venue that'll need to replace half of their wireless systems if that happens to the tune of $20k. I've been spitballing ideas with them and one of the ideas is to move to area mic's instead of personal wireless mic's. Wireless mic's have never been particularly cheap to operate and maintain, and they're not going to get any cheaper as more and more users get crammed into a smaller amount of available spectrum.
There isn't a one-size-fits-all audio reinforcement solution for this. Not remotely.
